Turn The Key
by Ginnie
Summary: Real love comes in just one twist of a key. [waff, AkiraxKaede]


Turn the Key -- by G Lee 

title: Turn the Key   
genre: romance   
rating: G... PG if you think I should give it a rating for shounen ai   
pairing: AkiraKaede   
notes: inspired by "Rikki's Hug" ( © Kathryn Litzenberger. Archive: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III) 

STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY. 

* * *

* * *

TURN THE KEY   
_ by G Lee _

I walk up the stairs to the door of the apartment building. I've been living here for so long that I can't remember when I first came and moved in. I know my path so well that I can create a map of it blindfolded and in the dark. Pausing in front of the door to my unit, I catch a whiff of freshly laundered linen haning outside a nearby window. The tangy smell of spicy chicken seeps out through the crack underneath the door. These are small things, such that people would overlook. 

But it's little things like these that make me smile. 

I gaze up at the unusually gray and cloudy sky. The cool breeze that accompanied the sudden midday weather change pentrates my loose, thin shirt, forcing my sweat-ridden body to shiver at the cold touch. Mother Nature's depression in the middle of the day was most certainly uncalled for. 

I sigh as I recall how my day went. 

Yet again, I fell asleep during Biology -- and we were having a quiz... 

Let's see... I was feeling quite sluggish during Phys.Ed. I mean, you can only roll that damn heavy three-holed ball down a 25-meter lane and knock down those marble pins so many times. 

Coach practically tried to kill us at practice. I swear, the way exhaustion ran its course through my body, I might as well have died. Nearly made me wish I didn't get that college scholarship. 

And if that wasn't bad enough... Some dude on campus took off with my wallet. Luckily, I don't keep any money in it. But... there was something very special in it. 

A picture of me with a certain fox-eyed high school senior, with a small "I love you" scrawled at the corner. 

I am simply too depressed. Sighing again in defeat, I struggle to turn the key -- when the door swings open to my surprise. 

There he stands, his lithe body clad in a loose shirt that almost exposed his shoulders, coupled with grey shorts that had a logo of a basketball at the left leg. His untamable hair is messier than usual, telling me that he attempted to comb it again. 

His gorgeous blue eyes, which constantly remind me of the ocean -- sometimes serene and tranquil, sometimes wild and restless -- look up at me in excitement, an inexplicable happiness lending them a warm glow. 

I just remembered... It's been a week since I last came home to Kaede. 

And he gives me a smile, so pure and innocent that it belies his seventeen years. 

I smile in return, joy coursing through me in seeing the reaction that I stimulate in this beautiful creature in front of me. I take delight in the fact that all he needs to be happy is for me to be there with him. 

"Akira... you're home," he says. 

Again, I wonder in his simplicity. Though few draw meaning from a simple statement such as that which he uttered, to me it has an entire world of significance. He may be all of seventeen years, but somewhere in him he is still a child. 

He pulls me in and closes the door behind me. Without even waiting for me to remove my shoes, he reaches out and pulls me into a tight hug. With that one gesture, all my weariness and college-concerned anxieties disappear, and all's right in my world with my Kaede. 

Then come the sweetest words I have ever heard, so beautiful were they that they could have been mistaken to be from an angel: "I missed you." 

Isn't it funny that after all the toil you go through, a simple display of affection just turns everything around? 

No langer am I able to find a reason to be tired. 

Gently, I disentangle myself from the comfort of his embrace, and he reluctantly drops his arms. I lean down to give him a short, sweet kiss, before he turns to return to his cooking. 

I reach for him and pull him to my chest, burying my face in unruly ebony locks and delighting in the mild apple scent of his shampoo. 

I trail light, feathery kisses down behind his ear to the area between his neck and shoulders, before whispering, "I missed you too, baby." Another radiant smile and a kiss is my reward. 

Tomorrow, I will be heading back to the university for another grueling basketball practice, and will most likely be coming home well into the night -- drenched in sweat with fatigue claiming every part of me. 

Yet I know that when I do come home, Kaede will be there waiting for me at my door -- along with his beautiful, rarely-seen smile and pale arms itching to pull me into a warm, "welcome home" hug. 

All I have to do is turn the key. 

  
  
_ ~owari~ _

  
G Lee   
::04082003:: 

* * *

* * *

Special thanks to **Hisashi loves Yelen** for telling me that I have a really bad habit of distracting readers by putting too many A/N's... so, this was re-edited because of her... thanks... 


End file.
